News Release: Sarah Fetters and Nicole Ottavi Earn Academic All-District Honors

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — Wittenberg University softball standouts Sarah Fetters, class of 2008 from Maumee, Ohio, and Nicole Ottavi, class of 2008 from Columbus, Ohio, have been recognized for the combination of their athletic and academic accomplishments with first-team CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America College Division All-District IV honors.

May 9, 2008
            

             Sarah Fetters

            

             Nicole Ottavi

Springfield, Ohio — Wittenberg University softball standouts Sarah Fetters, class of 2008 from Maumee, Ohio, and Nicole Ottavi, class of 2008 from Columbus, Ohio, have been recognized for the combination of their athletic and academic accomplishments with first-team CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America College Division All-District IV honors.

This is the second straight first-team Academic All-District IV award for Fetters, who went on to earn second-team CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine College Division Academic All-America honors in 2007. This is the first such award in Ottavi's career. Both will now be considered for Academic All-America honors in voting that takes place later this month.

Fetters, who started all 36 games at shortstop in 2008, led the Tigers to records of 23-13 overall and 7-7 in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC), good for fifth place in the regular season title chase. A team captain in 2008, Fetters led Wittenberg in runs scored (29), hits (40), total bases (53), on-base percentage (.424) and stolen bases (8-for-8). She ranked second in batting average (.345), doubles (7), home runs (2) and runs batted in (26) while committing just eight errors in nearly 200 official chances.

All that came on the heels of her finest collegiate season, a 2007 campaign in which Fetters topped the team with a .448 batting average, three home runs, 22 doubles, 65 hits and 98 total bases. She ranked third in the nation and first in the NCAC in doubles per game as she picked up second-team All-NCAC and second-team all-region honors.

Fetters broke school records for career at-bats (484), hits (176), doubles (41) and assists (331) during the 2008 season, and she equaled her mark in season assists (102) established a year ago. She also finished with 112 career runs scored, one shy of the record. She ranks in the top 10 in NCAC history in career hits, at-bats, doubles and assists.

Fetters, who will graduate summa cum laude from Wittenberg on Saturday with a degree in communication, is a member of the prestigious national academic honorary Phi Beta Kappa and Wittenberg's chapter of the student-athlete honorary Chi Alpha Sigma. She served as an intern in the Office of University Communications for three years at Wittenberg, and she worked as an intern with the West Virginia Power, the class A minor league baseball team affiliated with the Milwaukee Brewers in Charleston, W.Va., in 2007.

Ottavi, who split her time between the outfield and designated player, led the Tigers with a career-best .361 batting average while starting all 35 games in which she played. She finished second on the team in hits (39) and runs scored (20) and third in runs batted in (21) and total bases (43). In 2008, Ottavi ranked 11th in the NCAC in batting average.

Ottavi will graduate summa cum laude from Wittenberg on Saturday, with her degree coming in history. A member of Phi Beta Kappa and Chi Alpha Sigma, Ottavi is also involved with Alpha Lambda Delta, a first-year student honorary, Phi Alpha Theta, the history honorary, and she was an officer in the Education Honorary for two years. In addition, Ottavi served as editor of the university's History Journal three straight years, was president of Athletes for Christ for three years and was the winner of the 2008 Margaret S. Ermarth award, which is given annually to the outstanding senior history major.

Written By: Ryan Maurer